It’s that time of the year for refreshing and updating our knowledge of, what we hope never happens in the practice, a medical emergency.

The course is knowledge but also practice to mimic a real life situation. Enter George, our test dummy.

This involves teamwork, working under extreme stress, and working against the body clock of the patient in a medical crisis. 

The stress starts with identifying there is a problem with the patient. If the patient is “not in control of their body” then a medical emergency is happening. If then this leads to needing CPR, compressions of the heart begin. 

This is hard work! This is applying firm pressure at a fast enough pace to make the heart push blood around the body, especially to the brain. 

Then, while this is going on, setting up the defibrillator to the patient and making everyone is clear before shocking the heart.

Then, eventually, an air bag is placed via a device that accesses the lungs in the back of the throat. This to provide enough oxygen, (not too much) to the lungs, while the compressions are still happening.

I’m tired reliving this in my mind, while I’m writing this blog!